Warren Kepler
Colonel '''Warren James Kepler '''was the Director of Intelligence for the Special Projects division, and head of the SI-5 at Goddard Futuristics. Pre-Goddard Little is known about Kepler prior to his work with Goddard Futuristics. In A Matter of Perspective, he confides to Eiffel that his work has taken a heavy toll on his life. However, he gives no specifics. Tidbits about his past can be picked up through his long-winded stories, though whether anything Kepler reveals is genuine is debatable. Goddard Futuristics Kepler's skills and drive to excel brought him up the ranks of Goddard Futuristics. By 2009 he was a captain, and Deputy Director of Intelligence. An incident in which Kepler went against his superior's orders and catastrophically compromised a mission brought him before Mr. Cutter. Cutter, however, was impressed with Kepler's vision and willingness to take chances in the pursuit of constant improvement. He chose to hold Kepler's superior, Major Littlewood, responsible for the mission failure. Kepler was promoted to his place as major and Director of Intelligence. Previous Hephaestus Missions Kepler and the SI-5 were involved in the clean up after the failure of Lovelace's mission on the Hephaestus. He debriefed Dr. Selberg, and was the one who told him Captain Lovelace's escape shuttle had fallen into Wolf 359. Current Hephaestus Mission He handpicked Jacobi and Maxwell to join him on the mission to the Hephaestus. On their way to the Hephaestus, they spotted Doug Eiffel's destroyed ship freely flying through deep space and intercepted it, rescuing Eiffel. They reunited Eiffel with the crew of the Hephaestus, then proceeded to repair the station that was falling apart. Kepler took over as Commanding Officer and demoted Minkowski to Officer. When Eiffel tells him that he's working for a psychopath (Cutter), he says he doesn't really mind. This causes tension between the two teams. During this time of brief "partnership" between the Hephaestus crew and the Urania team, Kepler was a harsh leader, most often to Hilbert, due to their shared past. He was not afraid to push the Hephaestus crew beyond their limits; like Eiffel's 26-hour shift and Kepler sending Minkowski back out to repair the exterior hull after getting her leg stuck between two external gears and cracking her helmet. Sensing dissent among the ranks and preparing for a mutiny, Kepler began manipulating Eiffel to trust him more than others from the Hephaestus, most prominently seen during Don't Poke the Bear. During a doctor's visit between Eiffel and Hilbert to test the Decima Virus, Kepler began to test Hilbert's patience which caused him to act in a harsher manner around Eiffel. When this happened, Kepler would defend Eiffel and berate Hilbert cruelly. Because of this, Eiffel at first enjoyed Hilbert being talked down to, but quickly grew uncomfortable with the situation when Kepler began screaming at Hilbert. As the appointment continued and Hilbert grew less and less interested in talking through his plans and experiments with Eiffel, Kepler acted out and slammed Hilbert's hand in a drawer. After yelling more, Kepler offered Eiffel a choice to end these experiments once and for all. Initially, Eiffel refused, but when faced with Kepler's confused and disgusted tone at the possibility of continuing these experiments, Eiffel changed his mind and agreed to stop the Decima Experiments. Kepler took keenly to Eiffel, and continued to use him to weaken the ranks of the opposers. Contact Event Unfortunately, an insurrection occurred hours before the Contact Event, lead by Eiffel's plan. Jacobi and Maxwell captured Eiffel and Lovelace, and Kepler used them as bargaining chips to push the other team to surrender. Kepler threatened to shoot one of them if Minkowski and Hilbert did not give up. He pointed a gun between Eiffel and Lovelace and began to choose which he would shoot with "Eenie, Meenie, Miney, Moe". About to land on Eiffel, Lovelace interfered. She began to mock and berate Kepler and he changed his mind and began to threaten Lovelace's death to Minkowski. Minkowski did not surrender, and Lovelace was shot and killed. Kepler and Jacobi were apprehended and showed up to the funeral Eiffel held for Lovelace, Maxwell, and Hilbert. During this, Lovelace came back to life, and Kepler revealed that this was not the original Lovelace. This knowledge caused a rift between him and Jacobi, who thought he knew all Kepler's plans. After the events of the funeral, Kepler began to talk to Eiffel, eventually taunting him about his daughter. Eiffel, enraged, punched Kepler. Eiffel paused for a moment, before continuing on with two more punches in quick succession. Kepler used that moment to overpower Eiffel and grab his gun, then used him as a hostage to try and convince Minkowski to free Jacobi. Lovelace then appeared behind Kepler, and Kepler lost his advantage. Immediately after this, the Contact Event occurred. Lovelace became a host for the Dear Listeners and ripped off Kepler's right hand, stating that he will not harm anyone ever again. Cutter Administration When Cutter boarded the Hephaestus, Kepler was not brainwashed with the rest of the team, reswearing his loyalty to Goddard. Although, the contrary was evident in later episodes. Kepler did not report to Cutter that Eiffel had broken free from his mind control and was rescuing the crew. Later, during the final episode, Eiffel and Jacobi offered Kepler a chance to help them overthrow Cutter, which he refused. However, this was to gain them a tactical advantage, by denying this in front of Rachel Young. He actually supported the team which he proved later on in the finale. Death While disposing of the body of a Listener, Kepler shot Young twice in the back to kill her. In retaliation, Young threw Kepler into the airlock and proceeded to vent him. Before she opened the outer lock, Kepler took a sip of scotch and seemed at peace knowing he could help Jacobi and the rest of Minkowski's crew, even if they didn't know about it. After he was vented into space, Young collapsed and died. Personality Kepler is a man of the law -- whether that Law is actually written down somewhere or just something he's coming up with off the cuff is pretty much up for debate. He will do whatever he needs to do to maintain his power over other people and values loyalty above all else, often through over dramatic "Bond Villain Wannabe" speeches or just by torturing people by asking them questions. Relationships Allies Daniel Jacobi Kepler personally recruited Jacobi to the SI-5 for his ballistics expertise in 2011. In the years that followed, Jacobi would become one of the top members of the SI-5, and served as Kepler's second-in-command on the Hephaestus Mission. Kepler had great trust in Jacobi, who was doggedly loyal to Kepler in turn. However, after Maxwell's death, Jacobi's faith was shaken. Jacobi blamed Kepler for her death, as Kepler had not informed them of the full scope of their mission. This break in their relationship would eventually lead to Jacobi attempting to force Minkowski to kill Kepler. Alana Maxwell Dr. Maxwell was also recruited to the SI-5 by Kepler for her skill in Artificial Intelligence development, particularly her ability to communicate with "things that aren't humans." His relationship with Maxwell was not as easily trusting as with Jacobi. Kepler trusted Maxwell's expertise, but was quick to rein her in when he feels her personal ideology is distracting her from the needs of the mission, as seen in Limbo. Trivia * His surname is most likely a reference to Johannes Kepler, a noted 17th-century astronomer. It is speculated he poisoned his mentor, Tycho Brahe, in order to steal his data. *The mini episode "Long Story Short" provided many contextless and likely untrue tidbits about Kepler's history, including: :* He had proved that escape from Alcatraz is feasible :* He formerly worked in the sale of antique salt and pepper shakers :* He almost made the Olympic badminton team :* He was part of a funk band, which he "had to walk away from". :* He had been grandfathered into the Worshipful Company of Haberdashers. :* He came to be in possession of an Oscar, which he returned. :* He did not trust professional bowlers. :* He had distilled moonshine with a straight-six engine. :* He had been deified by some group. :* He may have been accused of insider trading by the Swiss. :* He had no memory of the year 1987. :* In "Need to Know", it was revealed that two years previous to the events of the podcast, Kepler had once spent $8,000 dollars on a ski trip. Image Gallery KeplerCharacterPage.jpg|Kepler's character sheet from the Wolf 359 website. Category:Characters Category:SI-5 Category:Hephaestus Crew